Coronavirus

[Tredman]

Our local has been great, doing everything very well and a decent buzz about the place while not being busy.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I pop into the Western most nights after work. It’s fine. Take a mask to wear to get to where you will be seated. One entrance. Temp check and give your details. You are assigned a table and it is table service.

I do miss leaning on a bar though...

 

[BillyDee]

Following latest WHO advice, Scotland are set to introduce fast masks in High School/Secondary Schools in corridors and communal indoor areas.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Richard Littlejohn demanding people physically attend work whilst admitting to working from home for 30 years. 'You couldn't make it up'.

 

[Boozad]

Littlejohn, what a penis. Probably spent 28 of those years figuring out how many times he can get the word jackanapes into his next piece.

 

[WolfmanOz]

As of this morning in Victoria, in a population of 6.5 million, we're had 524 deaths and over 18,900 infections - there was only 20 deaths up to July.

To give you all what we're experiencing in Melbourne, Victoria currently, we have been in some form of hard lockdown since late March - we are currently at Stage 4 with the following restrictions:

- The “state of emergency” in Victoria has been upgraded to a “state of disaster”, meaning police can now enter your home to carry out spot checks even if you don’t give them permission and they don’t have a warrant.

- Between the hours of 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., you’re not allowed to leave your homes except for work, medical care and caregiving i.e. a curfew !

- Outside those hours, you may only leave your home for four reasons: shopping for food and essential items, care and caregiving, daily exercise and work. “We can no longer have people simply out and about for no good reason whatsoever,” said Premier Dan Andrews (Kim Jong Dan).

- Daily exercise can only take place within a 5km radius of your home and cannot last longer than an hour.

- You cannot exercise in groups of more than two, even if they’re members of the same household.

- Apart from daily exercise, you are only allowed to leave your home once a day for essential supplies and food.

- In the whole of Victoria, you cannot buy more than two of certain essential items, including dairy, meat, vegetables, fish and toilet paper (restrictions by supermarkets).

- Schools have closed again, with all Victoria school students returning to remote learning from Wednesday (except for vulnerable children and children of permitted workers).

- Golf and tennis venues, which were open, have now been closed - fishing is banned.

- Weddings are banned, and funerals will be limited to 10 people.

- Face masks (nappies) anywhere outside your home have been mandatory for people in metropolitan Melbourne since July 22nd, but that rule has now been extended to the entire state of Victoria.

- You cannot have visitors or go to another person’s house unless it is for the purpose of giving or receiving care. However, you can leave your house to visit a person if you are in an “intimate personal relationship” with them, even during curfew hours. So no “bonk ban”.

- If you have a holiday home or were planning a holiday outside Melbourne, tough cheese. You must remain in the city.

- The maximum fine for breaching a health order currently stands at $1,652, but Kim Jong Dan says he’s going to increase them.


These restriction are due to end on Sept 13th, but Kim Jong Dan wants to extend the powers for a state of disaster/emergency for another 6-12 months.

All this has blown up since July where the State Govt. responsible for hotel quarantine of returning overseas people which was outsourced to mickey mouse private operators . . . plus the following State Govt. induced disasters:

- Hotel Quarantine, total disaster.
- Testing & Contact Tracing, poorly resourced and executed.
- Super spreader events mismanagement - Cedar Meats, BLM, Al-Taqwa.
- Isolation enforcement.
- Aged Care, wont work with Feds properly, deflecting.
- ADF (Australian Defence Force) personnel, Refused help on multiple occasions.
- Communication, Petty, contradictory, totally wrong focus.
- Hospital capacity, talk aside only a 10% increase, private picking up slack.
- Gave themselves a payrise whilst a good chunk of us are losing their jobs.

We are already living with all key hallmarks of a police state where the primary elements of a police state are: (1) draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary rights; (2) a mass media supportive of the state’s messaging and deprivation of fundamental rights; (3) excessive use of power by the police; (4) people being encouraged by the State to inform on their fellow citizens. We are currently experiencing every single one of these elements. This is truly frightening, echoing as it does with reminders of previous oppressive regimes with subjucation of rights and institutions, again for the alleged betterment and security of the State.

We haven't seen our families since early this year . . . We are experiencing a living hell with no end in sight.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Man, that sounds horrific. I had three months on my own and I was seriously at breaking point by the end (not that it takes that much to break me, but still).

Hoping you get some form of normality soon. I can at least see my family, my GF and my mates now, even if when we go into public areas there are some protocols that six months ago would have seemed utterly bizarre.

 

[darlowolf64]

A bit scary as my sister and her family live in Victoria, quite close to Melbourne and I’ve not heard from her lately... off to message her

 

[WolfmanOz]

A bit scary as my sister and her family live in Victoria, quite close to Melbourne and I’ve not heard from her lately... off to message her

Outside of Melbourne the restrictions aren't quite so severe. Hopefully your sister and her family are coping.

My eldest son has effectively lost his job and will be moving in with his mum (my first wife) when he can when he is allowed to move out of his current unit.

My youngest daughter is doing her final year of secondary school (Year 12) which in effect determines your grades/scores for uni entry. She has been schooling from home for 2 out of 3 teams. Thankfully she's managed superbly but many like her have not.

Fortunately I'm retired, but I have many friends and acquaintances who have either lost their job (company closed) or are on Govt. payments to keep them in a job (which will eventually end).

Our best friends will have to sell their home as their business hasn't been allowed to operate since March. There will be tens of thousands of people in the same boat.

My wife is a child maternal heath nurse and is classified as an "essential" worker so she can still go to work.

On and I forgot to add you need a work permit to actually travel to work !

We are looking at a social/economic catastrophe here in Victoria in the coming months.

We intend to leave Melbourne when we can - which won't be for another 3-4 years until our daughter finishes uni. Not sure where we will go but not in this shithole.

 

[lemonjelly]

Thanks for sharing mate. It does sound huge what you are going through.

I've been watching the situation in australia/new zealand with some interest, as the impression put out seemed to be that things were under control there.
Your perspective sounds exceptionally worrying.

I was with my dad yesterday, and it occurred to me that in many places, the curfews and stay at home messages may have some limited risks, as the virus seems to be more virulent indoors, with spread being significantly more likely than outdoors. People being restricted to apartment building etc could have created environments where transmission was being facilitated if lots of people were there too.

It also got me thinking about how we've spent decades under successive governments selling off/building on green spaces, and reducing outdoor facilities, and privatising aspects of fitness and health provision. It shows how short temr so much of that thinking was now. Not having such open spaces for exercise and social events has had significant implications for peoples physical and mental health.

 

[WolfmanOz]

Thanks for sharing mate. It does sound huge what you are going through.

I've been watching the situation in australia/new zealand with some interest, as the impression put out seemed to be that things were under control there.
Your perspective sounds exceptionally worrying.

I was with my dad yesterday, and it occurred to me that in many places, the curfews and stay at home messages may have some limited risks, as the virus seems to be more virulent indoors, with spread being significantly more likely than outdoors. People being restricted to apartment building etc could have created environments where transmission was being facilitated if lots of people were there too.

It also got me thinking about how we've spent decades under successive governments selling off/building on green spaces, and reducing outdoor facilities, and privatising aspects of fitness and health provision. It shows how short temr so much of that thinking was now. Not having such open spaces for exercise and social events has had significant implications for peoples physical and mental health.

Both Australia and NZ had a natural advantage in that being island countries they could limit the impact of the virus coming in which was largely done in February.

I have family in NZ and they have been appalled by the attitude of their Govt that they could "eradicate" the virus by their hard lockdown earlier in the year, and for 100 days it "appeared" to have worked and then it "came back", and with it, a re-introduction of lockdowns. I think NZ has had about 6 deaths this year !

The social and economic issues are mounting in NZ as unemployment is rapidly rising, businesses are falling over and without any overseas tourism the economy is tanking.

Here in OZ its been a clusterfuck with each state trying to manage it the worst way. As a federal system we have in effect closed borders between each of the states (which is unconstitutional but that hasn't seemed to bother the state premiers).

We even had a situation late last week when an unborn baby (of twins) died because Qld wouldn't allow a NSW couple to access their hospital so they had to travel over 1800km to a hospital in NSW which then resulted in tragedy for them. The Qld Premier had said "Qld hospitals were for Qlders and that NSW hospitals were for NSWers".

The rate of infection and deaths in OZ has been very low compared to the rest of the world/Europe, and if you back out Victoria it's little more than a 100+ deaths. But the reaction was been so over-the-top and draconian you wouldn't believe it.

I'm not exaggerating when I say we are living in a police state in Victoria. The Premier is nicknamed "Dictator Dan" and/or "Chairman Dan" and it's no fucking joke. He has established an inner cabinet of 8 with him issuing decrees of Govt diktat which make a total mockery of democracy and accountability.

All this has resulted in 85% of deaths/infections being incurred on his watch, as the State Govt. lurches from one clusterfuck to another. In the meantime the Feds can't do anything due to constitution which limits the power of the Feds in "state" matters. It's fucking insane.

I should add the deaths (over 500 odd) are 95% restricted to aged care homes, and also 98% of all deaths have been those who are 70 or older. It's a killer of the elderly here in Oz.

But the social and economic collapse we are facing in Victoria is truly frightening, as in effect we have no private sector as they either closed or closed shop whereas the public sector are still pulling their wage and salary cheques without any impact (in fact our Dictator Dan gave them all a 2% pay rise in July and himself a 11% salary increase).

I'm not a big poster on this site, and given what we're experiencing, it puts a lot in perspective and my interest in Wolves, post the return, has been somewhat muted. Certainly the angst re Doherty and the club's current transfer business all seems somewhat meh.

We have no end in sight . . .

 

[BillyDee]

If only we were an island nation, we could have done so much better.
Oh wait...

Hospilisation rate going up in France as well as cases is worrying though. You'd expect the two to go hand in hand obviously, but hasn't yet been the case here.

 

[WolfmanOz]

If only we were an island nation, we could have done so much better.
Oh wait...

Hospilisation rate going up in France as well as cases is worrying though. You'd expect the two to go hand in hand obviously, but hasn't yet been the case here.

As I understand it, the UK never closed their international borders and allowed international flights to continue. Looking from the outside it appeared the management of the virus in the UK was as poor/incompetent as any country.

 

[BillyDee]

Eventually we half arsed did, but it was long after the horse had bolted, and wasn't enforced anyway.

 

[AndyWolves]

Infection rates seem to be going up but deaths seem very low these days.

I haven't been paying much attention lately though

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Infection rates seem to be going up but deaths seem very low these days.

I haven't been paying much attention lately though

Read an article recently (cant find it now) that said the death rate was dropping due to

a) younger people seem to be getting it and spreading the virus.
b) due to more testing, more asymptomatic now included in the numbers.
c) better treatment like the steriod drug they are now using, as doctors learn more about the virus.
d) due to social distancing, the volume of the virus being passed on from person to person is less, there is a school of thought that the volume of virus that you receive is a component in how deadly it is for the infected person.
e) there is a possibility that the strain floating round is less deadly then what we saw in the spring (they were still making studying this).

 

[lemonjelly]

yeah, seems to be now that the main people testing positive are young, and are less likely to experience severe health issues as a result.
Older generations are in general more likely to suffer severe effects from covid, and remain relatively isolated (aside from family members in the main).
I guess the risk is that with school, further and higher education resuming, we have increased risks of wider transmission.
Perhaps the aim will be to retain that transmission within younger age groups, thus not creating the risk to life and strain to health services and resources.
It also appears that transmission outdoors is relatively low. Indoors is a much greater risk as I mentioned yesterday. I guess there is a risk of people in air conditioned offices etc where the virus is circulated around buildings.
It will be interesting to see how people cope as autumn and winter draw in. Weather is less appropriate for outdoor meetings, in gardens etc. People are likely to see family/friends indoors, again increasing the likelihood of transmission.

From a personal point of view, I am concerned about returning to work. There's no way students won't be having house parties and the like. I am aware that we have had cases at my place of work, as it has remained partially open throughout. Apparently someone was saying the other day they weren't feeling well, and their manager didn't believe them. Manager walked up to them and put their hand on their head, and said "mind, you do have a temperature. Both have since tested positive.

WolfmanOz - really appreciate you sharing the information. Please do look after yourself and those close to you! My best to you.

Interested to hear from other places how their experiences are, as this is truly a global issue. Fred, how are things in Scandinavia now? T3ch/Alan, what's it like in the states, as the election is pushing it lower down the news agenda. Pav, seems to be a rise in cases in Greece? Sedgelywolf, how are you doing in Spain? Anyone else outside the UK?
Edit - remiss of me to forget our Portuguese friends whilst typing. Joel at al, how are things with you?

India had a further record day of cases. The news is coming out about how many cases are confirmed, but the numbers of deaths aren't being reported here.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Not from overseas LJ, but a perspective from an older age profile than most on here.

Many people I know locally are of a similar (or older) age range & it is noticeable that a sizeable percentage (probably 30%+) are still not prepared to re engage with the world despite being in a relatively rural area where incidence of Covid is (and has been throughout) low.

I couldn't live my life like that (& haven't) I will assess the level of risk & what steps have been taken to mitigate transmission before deciding to do something/go somewhere. If football attendance rules are relaxed & Wolves allow 25% in would I go? Would depend on what information they give re what they are doing to reduce issues, if I thought it safe enough then yes (though unlikely to want 8 hrs on trains so would probably drive up). A smaller proportion are more vulnerable due to health conditions, but not all.

Fortunate that I do not have to consider the work environment question as don't any more

As contact increases then infection numbers are rising, but not hospital admissions. Indicates that it is younger people getting it (plus increased testing levels) & they on average are less vulnerable to serious outcomes. Without reopening the economy more then we face an economic meltdown.

This problem will not go away without a succesful vaccine (even then it won't completely any more than seasonal flu does every year) - put as much safety conditions in place as are practicable and allow the vulnerable or elderley element of society decide for themselves whether that is an acceptable risk.

 

[Keef]

I nipped into work last week to see what's happening re school transport, got given a list of who's on the bus, schools said its keeping pupils in a bubble of classes/ ages, so I've got 7 kids on the bus across an age range of 11-18 including 3 new kids, how's that bubbles of ages/classes I don't know or how social distancing will work with 9 total including me and the escort on a 16 seat bus.
Good luck everybody.

 

[Parkins left foot]

I nipped into work last week to see what's happening re school transport, got given a list of who's on the bus, schools said its keeping pupils in a bubble of classes/ ages, so I've got 7 kids on the bus across an age range of 11-18 including 3 new kids, how's that bubbles of ages/classes I don't know or how social distancing will work with 9 total including me and the escort on a 16 seat bus.
Good luck everybody.

As an ex School Business Manager in a rural area have had many contacts with the school transport staff - was always a rota for going in the front passenger seat, but would be inclined to ban that & keep them well away from you. Primary school so none would be expected to be masked which presumably most of yours should be.

Keep the windows open at all times really & put them all towards the back of the bus.